Anne Frank, formerly known as Annelies Marie Frank, is a world known German-born diarist and a Holocaust victim of World War II.
In 1942 Anne and her family were trapped in Amsterdam by the German occupation. Persecution of the Jews escalated so Anne Frank and her family went into hiding in concealed rooms behind a bookcase in the building where her father worked.
Millions of people have read her work in “The Diary of Anne Frank” and in “Anne Frank: The Biography” in which she wrote about the Nazi’s persecution of Jews and her life in hiding. Anne Frank’s Diary is one of the most widely read books on the Holocaust.
Several films, such as the 1959 film “The Diary of Anne Frank Movie”, are also viewed by millions.
Read the following to discover and learn more about Anne Frank:
- Early life & Education
- Anne Frank Diary
- Anne Frank Arrest
- Anne Frank Death
- Anne Frank: The Biography
- Anne Frank Facts
- Early Life – Anne Frank was born on in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 12, 1929. Her mother’s name was Edith Hollander Frank and her father, a businessman, was named Otto Frank. She had an older sister, Margot.
- Four years after Anne was born, Hitler came into power and instituted laws that all of Germany’s Jewish citizens should be persecuted. Anne and her mother and her sister went to stay with her grandmother in Aachen, but her father remained behind. However, he later relocated to Amsterdam where he got an offer to start his own company.
- In February 1934, Anne, and the rest of her family joined Otto in Amsterdam.
- Education – While in Amsterdam, Anne was enrolled in a Montessori school and was excellent in reading and writing. She was shy about her writing skills and never wanted to reveal the contents of her writing. However, she was energetic and was popular.
- Invasion – In May 1940, the Germans invaded the Netherlands and the occupation government started persecuting Jews by imposing restrictive and discriminatory laws. To save his family, Anne’s father tried to emigrate to the United States, but his visa application was not processed due to the closure of the United States Embassy.
- Hiding
- On July 6, 1942, Anne and her family moved into their hiding place, known as the Achiterhius or the secret Annex. A bookcase was used to hide the door of the Achiterhius to keep it from being discovered. On July 13, 1942, they were joined by her father’s Jewish associate, Hermann van Pels, his wife, and his son Peter. Later in November of the said year, they were joined by Fritz Pfeffer.
- They lived in constant fear of being discovered so they never went outside.
- Anne Frank had a close bond with Peter and shared her first kiss with him.
- She recorded that she was connected more with her father than the rest of her family.
- While in hiding, Margot, her sister, took a shorthand correspondence course while Anne concentrated on writing and editing her diary. Her aspiration was to become a journalist.
- On the 4th of August 1944, the German police discovered their hiding place and Anne and her family with the other occupants of the Achiterhius were interrogated and held overnight. The next day they were transferred to an overcrowded prison where they were detained. Two days after they were taken to the Westerbork Transit Camp. They were considered as criminals because they were caught hiding so they were punished for hard labor.
- On September 1944, they were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The men, the women, and the children were separated, so Otto Frank was taken away from his family.
- On October 28, Anne and her sister were transported to Bergen-Belsen but their mother, Edith was left behind.
- Miep Gies and Bep Koskuiji, two of the employees that knew that Anne and her family were in hiding, were not arrested, so after returning to the Achiterhius they secured Anne’s notes from her diary with the intention and the hope of returning the notes to her after the war.
In January 1945, Edith Frank, Anne Frank’s mother died from starvation.
In March 1945, Anne Frank and her sister died. The cause of Anne’s death is not really known but it is believed that she died of an infectious disease called typhus. Their bodies were disposed of in a mass grave.
Anne Frank: the biography is the first full biography that gives an account of Anne Frank Holocaust. It was written by Melissa Muller and was first published in Germany in 1988. It was updated and revised in 2014 to depict current information.
Here are five things about Anne you that you should know:
- Anne had two versions of her diary.
- She addressed the main character of her diary as “Dear Kitty.”
- Her diary was published in the Netherlands on June 25, 1947.
- Anne sister also wrote a diary.
- Anne died at the age of 15.
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